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This “disturbing” case has highlighted the importance of safeguarding medical information, with critics calling for a legislation change to force hospitals to report serious privacy violations to the commission.

Peterborough hospital told the Star in a written statement Friday that DeCiccio was the only staff member fired in the breach with known anti-abortion beliefs. Neither the hospital nor the privacy commissioner would confirm DeCiccio inappropriately accessed abortion files.

DeCiccio, who used to protest outside the hospital with Peterborough Pro-Life during her lunch hour on Saturdays, categorically denied being fired from the hospital or snooping into any patient records. “I have done nothing wrong. I am not discussing my personal or professional life with a Toronto Star reporter,” she said Monday.

Nancy Martin-Ronson, Peterborough hospital’s chief information officer, said in a written statement Tuesday that the privacy breach “involved records for abortion services performed at the hospital between June 3, 2010, and March 24, 2011.”

“Patients who had abortion services between those dates may have been affected by the breach,” she said, adding that any concerned patients were invited to contact the hospital’s privacy officer.

The total number of intentional health-related privacy breaches in Ontario is unknown because of legislation allowing hospitals to handle such violations internally and report them at their own discretion. The commission is notified of about 400 health-related privacy breaches every year and a Star investigation of eight Toronto health institutions unveiled 218 privacy violations last year, the majority of which went unreported to the commission.

Beamish wants to see a legislation change forcing hospitals to report serious breaches of personal health information, which would allow the commission to identify trends and prevent future incidents.

He also wants more prosecutions lodged by the attorney general under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) to deter nosy clinicians from prying into records.

In the Peterborough abortion breach, there were repeated instances where the employee targeted a certain patient group and it is unknown what she was planning to do with the information, Beamish said.

“This looks to me like the kind of case where a targeted prosecution would be appropriate,” he said, adding that it would send a message to clinicians that intentional breaches are not tolerated. The case can not be referred to the attorney general now because the statute of limitations imposes a six month restriction to lodge a prosecution.

Beamish is aware of only two provinces, Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, which have successfully prosecuted under health-related privacy acts.

Only one prosecution has ever been lodged in Ontario under PHIPA, which was introduced in 2004, Beamish said.

Nurse Melissa McLellan was charged in 2013 after North Bay Regional Health Centre said she accessed more than 5,800 patient records without authorization. The case is still before the courts, but if found guilty, McLellan could be fined up to $50,000.

“Personal health information is the most sensitive type of information that exists anywhere and it is deserving of the highest level of privacy protection,” Cavoukian, who served as Ontario’s privacy commissioner for 17 years, said.

If intentional privacy breaches continued, Cavoukian feared they could erode public confidence in the entire health system. “Employees need to know there will be severe repercussions for this,” she said.

Cara Zwibel, from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said she was aware of a number of recent and “fairly reckless” hospital privacy breaches. “We need to start seeing some consequences and a change in culture,” she said.

Dr. Eric Hoskins, Minister of Health and Long Term Care, would not respond to questions from the Star about changing the legislation to force hospitals to report serious privacy breaches.

However, in a written statement he said his office was engaging with the commission to strengthen protections around patient privacy.

DeCiccio was an active member of Peterborough Pro-Life, but the group’s president, Tom Mockler, said he was not aware of her involvement in the privacy breach.

DeCiccio told Mockler accessing patient files was part of her day to day job and that the hospital placed no restrictions on what records she could or could not access, he said.

When asked if Peterborough hospital had been aware of DeCiccio’s anti-abortion stance before employing her as a health information clerk, Martin-Ronson said no employees were discriminated against for personal or religious beliefs.

All employees were trained on patient privacy law and DeCiccio’s hospital system access was “promptly suspended” after the hospital learned of the breach, she said. “A search of the employee’s work computer and email did not reveal any evidence of personal health information having been disclosed.”

Speaking to the Star Monday, DeCiccio said the allegations against her were not true, but, again, she would not say why.

The only comment DeCiccio was willing to provide to the Star was: “If people would even try to live by the 10 simple commandments that God our creator gave us the world would live in peace.”

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